Mind-blowing WR statistics from 2017
Saw this tweeted earlier and was shocked by it.
I knew Grant Perry was our leading receiver with very few yards but I didn't know only 3 TDs last year were by WRs......
Player | Rec. | Yds. | Yds/Rec. | Yds/Gm | TD | Lng |
Grant Perry | 25 | 307 | 12.3 | 27.9 | 1 | 33 |
Zack Gentry | 17 | 303 | 17.8 | 23.3 | 2 | 36 |
Sean McKeon | 31 | 301 | 9.7 | 23.2 | 3 | 36 |
Donovan Peoples-Jones | 22 | 277 | 12.6 | 21.3 | 0 | 48 |
Kekoa Crawford | 17 | 243 | 14.3 | 22.1 | 1 | 43 |
Chris Evans | 16 | 157 | 9.8 | 12.1 | 1 | 24 |
Tarik Black | 11 | 149 | 13.5 | 49.7 | 1 | 46 |
Karan Higdon | 8 | 131 | 16.4 | 10.1 | 0 | 35 |
Eddie McDoom | 11 | 81 | 7.4 | 6.8 | 0 | 24 |
Khalid Hill | 5 | 62 | 12.4 | 4.8 | 0 | 22 |
Nick Eubanks | 2 | 61 | 30.5 | 15.2 | 0 | 48 |
Nate Schoenle | 4 | 41 | 10.2 | 3.7 | 0 | 15 |
Nico Collins | 3 | 27 | 9.0 | 6.8 | 0 | 13 |
Tyrone Wheatley, Jr. | 3 | 26 | 8.7 | 2.4 | 0 | 15 |
Henry Poggi | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 1.6 | 0 | 11 |
Ty Isaac | 3 | 16 | 5.3 | 1.8 | 0 | 10 |
Drake Harris | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 2.0 | 0 | 10 |
Maurice Ways | 3 | 7 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0 | 4 |
Ian Bunting | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0.5 | 0 | 6 |
I'm going to let you dive into the Superguide on this one: When was the last time our leading receiver had such a low yardage total?
I feel like it has to be a 2008 receiver. Did we complete a pass that season, Minnesota game aside??
And Mathews had 409. Think we’ll have to go further back
Edit: 1973, Paul Seal was Michigan's leading receiver with 254 yards. Per Sports Reference.
Michigan went 10-0-1 that year.
Since 1950, the absolute low point in yardage from a leading receiver was 1971, when Glenn Doughty had a whopping 203 yards on the year. Michigan went 11-1.
Lest we all think that was just a Bo relic, in 1961 Bennie McRae had 210.
Lest we all think that was just a sign of the times...it was, at least until Jack Clancy showed up and put up over 1000 yards in 1966.
Bill Connelly had some sort of "game of the week" recaps for old games. One was Michigan OSU. I forget when it was, maybe even before Bo Woody. But one sentence stuck out. Something about how the first pass was thrown halfway through the 4th quarter. My how much the game has changed.
But barely cracking 300 yards for our top WR in a west coast offense? Yeesh.
The running game was so dominant in the early 70's that they didn't really bother attempting to have a pass game.
The interesting part of my 5 minutes researching was the TD totals that went with the low yardage. It was normal to have like 300 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns. Passing was a red zone tactic only lol.
Probably around the time the forward pass was invented.
Was really expecting more than the Receiving section of our ESPN Statistics page when I saw the title of this post.
They also all occured in the first 7 quarters of the season. In the last 45 quarters of the season, WRs caught zero TDs.
Black returning and an extra year of experience for the entire WR corps will be huge for this team.
No WR TDs in the last 45 quarters pretty mind-blowing, but I think the presence of a decent QB will be more important than another year of experience the WRs.
They were wide open plenty of the time.
We had Peters playing competent against Rutgers and half of Wisconsin and still no touchdowns. The wide receivers were bad last year, real bad. The only games they really got open was against OSU.
but I felt like they were pretty wide open against MSU too. 10-2 still wouldn't have won us the East, but at least we would have beaten MSU and OSU.
The monsoon game? Passing was impossible in that weather regardless if a guy could or couldn't get open. No QB in the country could of threw well in that.
In the first half, before the rains came down. But, I suppose our excellent game plan that called for establishing the inside zone, so that later in the game (with the clouds threatening to burst from the opening kick-off) play action would bust our receivers wide open, was the right way to go. /s/
Did Tom Izzo draw up Michigan's game plan?
Your post is accurate, except that the first half offense was pretty good. Right up until that first fumble. Then the wheels came off...
Ty Isaac fumble at midfield killed me. We ended up turining it over 5 times that day but before the Isaac fumble everything was going our way.
The team last year had a knack of breaking down everytime things got tight. I hope that is just a symptom of inexperience, because if that is just what they are we are in for some serious heartbreak this year.
As I sat in the end zone and watched a receiver get wide open in the flat just beyond the sticks, JOK firmly placed the ball right in the middle of Bachi's chest. That is kinda how things went for most of that day/season.
DPJ was robbed of one at wisky
Didn't Seth's recent post show that when Peters was in the share of passes to TEs was much higher?
Everyone watching the game saw it.
DPJ really did get his foot down against Wisconsin.
Techincally, you're correct. Technically.
He has to be more aware of where his feet are. It was a TD. But if he learned from it he will know to pull his foot back and kick his toe down.
I'm wondering if it will ever happen for Wheatley Jr.
We'll always have that catch amd run from the Ford Field practice
hed be a decent option and another body in competition at OT if he made the switch few years ago. hopefully he finds success at TE and has no regrets there but clocks been ticking
He's been passed by two or three other guys. I don't think he'll even get to 10 catches this year.
No. Dude should have been working out at OT from the moment it was clear he would not be the featured TE.
Now Mr. Wheatley, if you're reading this, please Please PLEASE, prove me wrong! I'd be delighted to eat crow with a side of humble pie. Win the Mackey Award, and I will happily walk into Schembechler Hall with my face painted maize and blue to offer you my apologies and congratulations.
I watched every game. This isn't mind blowing.
Perry’s off the field stuff kept him off the practice field for a while, our receivers were young and spotty OL and QB play produced those terrible stats.
I’m no psychic or football expert for that matter but you have got to feel better about our chances this year with our WR’s being a year older, our TE’s being better, the addition of Ed Warinner...and perhaps even a competent QB or three??? I mean c’mon...if our QB can hit a WR in stride...even just show up and resemble a starting Michigan QB of the past...this year could really turn into something great.
Don't forget the fact that there is an actual receivers coach this year. Or so I've been reading. A grad assistant isn't going to cut it. Michigan hired the Florida Gators ex head coach to be the fucking receivers coach and that coach alone. You think there's a chance they know what the hell is going on this year? I sure fucking hope so!!
I'm genuinely surprised Kekoa Crawford caught the ball 17 times.
Obviously stats don’t work this way, but if Black has stayed healthy and played every game, you extrapolate out his statistics and he doubles the production of Perry.
Pep Hamilton is on the hot seat, and Jim McElwain is waiting in the wings?
Wow, if only we just got the ball to Eubanks more, we'd have won some hardware! Home boy was in God mode last season!
This was the 4th game of the season; Tight end Nick Eubanks was the third player to be knocked out of the game after a Purdue defender delivered a vicious blow to his head and neck area.
Screw Purdue and Jeff Brohm.
Go back and read the preview Brian did on the 2017 team and he completely dismissed the negative impact young WR have on production. I got into a debate w him and bunch of other people here on the subject cause Freshman WRs ALWAYS suck.
But nobody, BC included, wanted to hear that. FYI they'll be better this year no matter who is playing QB and they'll be even better next year. Its just how things work at that position.
Brian was wearing the maize and blue glasses when he wrote the 2017 offense preview. It's been a couple of months since I re-read but despite the heavy losses to graduation with guys who were multi year staters, he was predicting it to be the best offense in the Harbaugh era, I realize some things happened that weren't predicatble and the offense was worse then what anyone would have predicted but at some point youth and inexperience have to be factored into the equation.
Tarik Black had those numbers in his first three games as a freshman, so basically he just tea-bagged your "ALWAYS".
I'm pretty sure Tarik Black and DPJ would've been really good last year if they actually had a QB who could get them the ball (and Black wasn't injured obv)
....the passing game was heading in the right direction before the injuries, which came at two very thin positions; combine that with the weak transition classes and the Oline struggles = recipe for disaster....and, ya know, 8-5 isn't a "disaster".
Brian said almost all frosh WR’s suck, but that with 4 of that caliber there was a better than decent shot that one would break the mold.
His bet was on DPJ but it appeared that Black was well on his way before injury.... double the ypg of any other receiver and near the top in total yards despite playing less than 4 full games.
That said, the gist still was Frosh WRs suck...but, but Michigan!!!
Depressing chart - not just the overall numbers but the clear lack of explosive plays.
UofM freshman records. I think he was still leading us 4 games after he was hurt.
The kid is a unique 1st round type of talent and having him back and a year older is going to be huge.
You still don’t want your leading receiver to be a freshman with several in the rotation.
I was right there with you, I thought having Grant Perry and a slew of good tight ends would mitigate that but I knew we couldn't rely on freshman. What sucks is how Crawford and Mcdoom have turned out to be no factors. Mcdoom is slow and neither can catch.
We should have thrown 3 TD’s against Florida.
There were 2 thrown to Florida's DBs, if that makes you feel better.
;-)
Good thing it’s 2018 can we move on we get it the offense was historically bad last year.